In just under 70 days, Henry Bros. Co. completed record work in record time. This included nearly $15 million of renovations, updates, and life safety work on 11 schools in six different districts. All the schools were ready for the first day of the fall semester. The districts include Worth School District 127, Elmhurst School District 205, Glenbard THSD 87, East Aurora School District 131, and Will County School District 92.

“The hard work, determination, and dedication of our project teams, contractors, and vendors were critical to completing the work in a compressed time frame,” said Bob Nielsen, vice president of operations at Henry Bros. Co. (HBCo) “Also significant to keeping these jobs on the schedule was HBCo’s self-performing crews. They worked tirelessly on excavation, concrete, selective demolition, some miscellaneous masonry, and carpentry at various schools to keep us on track to meet the deadlines,” he added.

In the current market, short deadlines present more challenges than ever before. The supply chain, in particular, continues to be an issue for securing certain materials such as mechanical equipment, electrical gear, kitchen equipment, casework, wood doors, and various lighting fixtures.

“Critical to our successful completion of these projects was working closely with the schools, their architects, and consultants to prioritize, plan, and schedule each project to overcome some of the resource availability issues,” Nielsen said.

Even with tight timelines and restricted material availability, all schools opened for the staff and students on time.